


Awakening

by sgtjamesbarnes107



Series: Awakening [1]
Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AI, Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Eventual Smut, F/M, Gen, Metal Arm Fetish, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Telepathy, Unknown metahuman
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 22:46:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9292844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sgtjamesbarnes107/pseuds/sgtjamesbarnes107
Summary: A car crash destroys your families life, so you move to start new.Only, that new start held a lot more surprises in it than you had been experiencing.





	1. Prologue

### Prologue:: Game Over

Prologue:: Game Over

It had been over a year since the accident and the final court case was finally settled. ‘All the kids are mine,’ I sighed, relief heavy in my mind and body. ‘What now?’

Looking at the three beautiful girls, still dealing with the loss of their father, as they clutched me like the only person who kept them anchored to Earth anymore, I knew what we needed.

“Whose up for a game of ‘Relocation Roulette’?” I asked as we walked to the truck.

••••••••••••••••••••••••

 _6 Months Later_ We had just settled into our makeshift two bedroom apartment in the middle income area of downtown Philadelphia when I went on a takeout run, leaving my eldest in charge of her sisters until I came back, when I saw the first one. Well, 'saw’ isn’t quite the right word; 'run-over’ is more the correct term.

I had just turned the corner from crossing the street when he knocked into me, almost knocking me on my ass. Luckily, three kids of varying ages trains you to be quick on your feet, so I was just about to yell at him for being an ass when he shouted “DUCK!” and I just did. 

Either his tone or the terrified look had me on the ground as he opened fire on whomever was behind me. Once he stopped firing, he grabbed my arm, looked me over once and asked if I could run. I looked up into scared blue and nodded. 

That’s how my story with The Winter Soldier began.


	2. Blue Terror

Ch 1:: Blue Terror

I’ve never run so fast or so long in my life. I swore off ever smoking again, even though I’d quit a year prior, as well as joining whatever gym this guy went to and demanding the same trainer. We ran more than two dozen blocks before I lost track and felt better for it since I would’ve died if I really knew how many we ran then (close to 40 Steve told me later). 

It wasn’t until we were in an abandoned warehouse several miles from where we started, had been shot at a few/30 more times, and I felt like I was going to faint from oxygen deprivation, that I learned anything. Which would’ve been easier had the ringing in my ears not deafened me so horribly.

I told this strange man that, so I thought, but I was just wheezing and coughing, gasping for air. So, after about 5 minutes, once the ringing and wheezing stopped, the man explained to me what was going on. I really wish he hadn’t.

His name is James Buchanan Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier/Bucky, and the guys were shooting at me, not him. He and his friends had been watching my family since we moved because the accident 18 months prior wasn’t that. It was meant to kill me and not my late husband. My kids were safe with Clint Barton and Agent 13 at the Avengers Compound. Bucky chose to be my personal body guard with Steve as his back up; Steve was 6 blocks away in a car coming to get us.

James caught me as I fell as the information started hitting me; all I could ask was, “Why?” To everything. He knew I was in shock, he didn’t say anything more until Steve for there or then. He told Steve to shut up more than once when he tried to question me, just holding me as I fell apart on his lap as my world collapsed around me until it went black to him telling me he would chase the shadows away.

~~~~~~

I woke up to a pair of very terrified, beautiful sky blue eyes in a chair next to a bed that was mine in a room that wasn’t. At least, it hadn’t been the last time I was in this bed.   
‘I get the feeling this is my new room,’ I look around, from my dark haired watch dog anxiously awaiting me to say something to the pale walls and floor to ceiling windows, ‘whether I like it or not.’  
“Are you…” James starts, not sure what to say or do, so he just stops, still looking at me like I’m about to fall apart again.  
“I feel like shit and look like it, too, I’m sure, but the emotional freak out is done for now,” I tell him, slowly sitting up. 

My heads killing me and I’m starving. My body aches and I know I’m well past due for my doses of meds. I look for my purse to find it next to the bed. As I reach for it, James hands it to me, then gets me a glass of water from the bathroom attached to my room. 

I quirk an eyebrow at his response, to which he shrugs and says, “Dr. Banner looked up your medical records, saw the medication’s and I knew you’d to take them or you’d be thirsty..” 

“Thank you,” I smile, gratefully take the glass and swallow my handful of medication with my back to him. I saw the sadness in his eyes when he said ‘medication’ and I know his story; no psychology degree needed to know that taking my meds around him is not advisable for the future.

I give him back my purse and turn towards him, noticing my changed clothing for the first time and pray that it was Banner or Natalia that did this. James, whose eyes have not left me since before I woke (or before, I’m guessing) notice and blushes furiously. “Nat did that. Her and Steve removed me from the room and Steve kept me out until she was done. Then they went to play with the girls until bedtime while I came back in here. I haven’t left, just like I said.”

I nod and smile, which makes him blush more. “You’re eyes told me you weren’t lying when you told me that. So did you heart beat and the fact that I could your thoughts helps,” accidentally telling him exactly why I was being shot at and why I belonged with the Avengers more than they realised. 

As his eyes grew large with so many things, mostly surprise, I sighed.  
“Jarvis, assemble the Team in my room in five minutes but do not alert my daughter’s, please.”  
“As you wish, Miss.”  
“Well, that explains a lot, actually,” James mumbles before grabbing my hand and sitting next to me on the bed. Of everything he is thinking and feeling, fear is not there and for that I am thankful.


	3. Hail

Ch 2:: Hail

It’s been an hour since the Team assembled in my room and I explained everything to them. Banner and Stark both lit up like Christmas Trees to which both James and I told them to fuck off, I’m not an experiment unless I chose to be. Steve and Sam both kind of turned green but neither were scared. Wanda and Vision were curious, to which I responded telepathically with them to their delight. 

Only Clint and Nat were scared, to which I told them I don’t read minds usually, body language mostly as reading minds is a huge invasion and I don’t enjoy learning that much about people I don’t already know. That calmed Nat but Clint stayed perched on my door like a scared bird for the rest of the conversation. 

The only person who didn’t view me any different was James, who never left my side or let go of my hand. And everyone noticed, judging by their eyes. Sam and Steve even remarked, rather loudly, how odd it was for James to initiate body contact let alone continuing it this long. Steve was annoyed and Sam was curious if this was progress in James post-Hydra therapy/adjustment. 

Once everyone got over the fact that I would know whether they showered or picked their noses, they realised why I was the target and started trying to figure out why. James had figured out why, just like I had.

I squeezed his hand and nodded. “Hydra,” he said. Everyone froze. They looked at us. I nodded.   
“It was all over their minds,” I said, “Anger, hate, red and black, sterile, military, and Hydra. We figured that out at the warehouse waiting for Steve but didn’t tell anyone until we were waiting for you to get here.”

Everyone flew into action all at once while we stayed frozen on the bed, knowing that while they meant the best, it was useless. I told James as much through thought and he agreed. Starting tomorrow I would train and hone my skills to fight them, but that was just to delay what he and I knew was coming: our killing or being captured by Hydra.

~~~~~~~~

It took another half hour for everyone to clear out of my room. Then James took me on a tour of the compound in search of food, for which I was grateful since I never would’ve found it on my own. 

It turned out James could cook really well and made a mean cheeseburger (I ate 4). Then he showed me the gym, where we would be in another six hours, and I was saddened to learn there was no pool. The common room was huge, with everything anyone could want to stay entertained, despite varied interests and intellect levels. Talk was random but never forced or uncomfortable, nor was silence. 

We made it back to my room an hour or so before sunrise. I walked in and just kept his hand in mine, surprised to find him hesitate at the door. I looked back at him, confused and concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Um…,“James starts, “You seem pretty decently adjusted here and, uh, my room is just next door, and, uh, well, um,…”

I cock my head to the side and read his body language for not the first time, but this is the only time he’s unsure and I don’t like it.

“If you don’t want to come in, that’s your choice, James,” I say as reassuring as possible, “But I would prefer it if you came and stayed by me until I fell asleep. Please?” I look at him with the most alone and sad eyes I can, not because I need to. But because that’s how I genuinely feel and only he makes me feel anything but alone or sad. I show him that telepathically as much as possible.

His eyes go from stormy blue to glacier blue the instant he understands what I mean and knows he isn’t alone anymore. His next expression is a smile so brilliant I swear I’ll go blind from as he drags me inside. I close the door and then try to figure out how I came to have a six foot four, dark haired, broken puppy that not only watched over me but now I was responsible for.


	4. Shattered Windows

Ch 3:: Shattered Windows

I woke up to screaming, blood curdling, terrified screaming. It wasn’t until James started yelling at me that I realised I was the one screaming.   
I forgot about the nightmares.   
I hadn’t had one in over a year. 

Once I stopped screaming, I folded in on myself and sobbed. James just sat there, stunned at being the one who had to console the scared person. 

Thankfully, Jarvis had alerted the whole team I was screaming with James unable console me, so they arrived in various stages of waking. Sam was the one who talked me down and helped James understand what to do in the future for me. Everyone else had no idea why I was screaming, aside from being shot at the day before.

Once James understood what caused my screaming, his watch dog behaviour magnified. As did the whole teams on him of me. I was living under a microscope of a microscope. It was exhausting, but kind of sweet.

~~~~~~

The girls were loving it. They had all the family and attention they could dream of. Clint and Nat were teaching them martial and defensive arts while Banner and Stark were teaching them whatever they wanted to learn so they learned at their own paces one-on-one.

Meanwhile, Wanda, Steve and James beat, tortured and honed every muscle I didn’t know I owned. I let Banner test my brain some to see how I worked and Vision tried to explain how I worked; neither could explain it aside from evolution. Fury even was unsure what to say but “to keep me close and away from the Hydra fuckers.” 

This was my life for months. They’d get deployed on missions and one or two would stay behind to babysit my family. Usually James stayed because he could keep me in check the best and everyone knew it. Steve hated it since James was one of their beat fighters but unless I told him to go, he stayed. 

Even then, he’d fight me. He knew I could see what the fight did to him just by touching him at night and it caused nightmares that woke the compound. They had to sound proof my room and disconnect Jarvis after those missions because if he didn’t sleep by me, neither of us slept and both of us had terrors. 

We had become so dependent on the other that the others knew we could tell them where the other was in the city at any given point in the day. They joked we were addicted to each other; the truth was that without the other neither of us could survive.

More than one sleepless night had been spent between us exchanging stories of horror and how we came to be. His were worse than mine by miles, in my opinion, but for a civilian, mine were horrific to him. The things we’d both scene and lived were things that should’ve killed us times over, times we wished they had. But we agreed that then we wouldn’t be working with the Team or helping each other heal in however weird way we were.

Sam thought our progress was immense and was proud of us. He turned our sessions into dual ones since we didn’t share unless the other was there, which aggravated him to no end until he heard us one night in the gym. 

Steve hated me for months until he saw James smile a genuine smile for him again for the first time since before he went on ice after fighting Stark. That night, after supper, Steve stopped me and asked to speak to me alone. James hovered, but I told him to go play with the girls since they adored him so much and they dragged him off.

“I wanted to thank you,” Steve stated.

I just stared at him, dumfounded. 

He laughed at my expression. “I know I’ve been your last fan with Bucky, but you’ve helped him so much. I didn’t realise it until tonight when he was laughing like before…well, everything,” he said, “so thank you. For giving me my best friend back. For everything.”

“Uh…,” I stammered, “you’re welcome. I wasn’t trying to take him…” 

“I know. Now. Nat’s been telling me that all along and I was too stubborn to listen. I was jealous. I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven,” I said. “I have to go find a wall to run into to make sure I’m awake now, I’d you’ll excuse me,” I jokingly stated and then walked into the dining room wall for effect. “Yep, awake.”

I walked away from Captain America, laughing so hard he was crying, while I was in shock.


	5. Healing Wounds

Ch 4:: Healing Wounds

James found Steve and my interaction as hilarious as Steve did. The bruise on my jaw the next morning was less hilarious to him since it proved I did walk into the wall and Steve let me. Which, Steve was yelled at for until it faded a day later. Steve acted like a scorned puppy accordingly, which was adorable, really.

_8 months of living at the Compound_

James protectiveness of me had really increased over the past two months and had me on edge, which meant either he knew something I didn’t or something was going on. I stayed out of everyone’s heads out of common courtesy, so I asked them all if they knew. Which was useless since they looked at me as though I was the clueless one instead of the powerful telepath. 

So, I went to the source that night at bedtime.

As we were getting ready for bed, since our rooms were merged together four plus months prior, I just waited on our bed for him. He came out of the bathroom, saw me waiting, and stopped instantly.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, his brows furrowed in concern and eyes a stormy gray of beautiful concern (when did that happen?)

I looked up at him, truly looking at this dangerous and beautiful man, and realised what it was. “Nothing is wrong. It’s the opposite of wrong, actually. At least, to me,” I mumble through. 

He came and sat next to me, turning me to him. “Doll, if nothing’s wrong, why do you look like you ran over a dog?” He tries for a joking tone, but sounds anxious and scared instead.

“I love you,” I whisper.

“Wha…?“he asks, disbelief clouding his voice.

I take a deep breath, look in his eyes, and repeat myself, “I love you.”

He freezes and so do I. I wait for it to register within his mind and for him to respond.

It takes an agonisingly long minute, but his eyes go from stormy gray to glacier blue, like the first night I spent here, before he smiles and laughs. If I didn’t know him well, I’d be angry, but I know this is how he processes happy things so I let him giggle for a little before I punch him in the shoulder to get his attention. 

“I’m sorry, Doll,” he giggles, wiping happy tears from his eyes, “but that is not what I thought you’d be saying.”

“And that is not exactly the response I’m looking for either, asshole,” I glare at him as menacingly as I can but fail once he smiles again.

“Hmm..,“he ponders, grinning, ” what kind of response would you like?“ He’s enjoying teasing me, for e having the upper hand between us and loving it.

I mock think about it, shrug, and pretend to get ready for sleep. “Not sure, I’ll let you know in the morning, K?” feigning disinterest.

James isn’t buying it. He immediately grabs me by the waist, pulls me into his lap and starts tickling me, which he knows I hate. So, of course, I laugh like a child and thrash like a moron. 

He pauses for a moment, which I take advantage of, by locking eyes with him and resting my forehead on his. “I don’t know why, or how or when, but I love you and all you idiotic tendencies,” I say, showing him all the small things he does that I adore that he forgets he even does. 

He shows me back everything I do that he loves about me and says, “I love you and all the neurotic, tedious things you do too,” before kissing me in a way that makes me forget air. 

We don’t come up for air until the next afternoon; by then the whole compound had figured out not to disturb us since Jarvis wasn’t off that night. And he informed them not to disturb us as we were indisposed for the time being. He was kind enough to lock our door, too. I wanted to hug that AI for not the first time.


End file.
